THE PEAR- TREE BORER. 66b 



yellow. The wings expand tln-ee quarters of an inch, or a 

 little more. 



Some years ago, it Avas ascertained that a species of 

 ^geria inhabited the pear-tree in this State ; and it is said 

 that considerable injury has resulted from it. An infested 

 tree may be known by the castings . thrown out of the 

 small perforations made by the borers, which live under 

 the bark of the trunk, and subsist chiefly upon the inner 

 bark. They make their cocoons under the bark, and change 

 to chrysalids in the latter part of summer. The winged 

 insects appear in the autumn, having, like others of this 

 kind, left their chrysalis-skins projecting from the orifice 

 of the holes which they had previously made. In its winged 

 form, this iEgeria is very much like that which inhabits 

 the currant-bush ; but it is a smaller species. It was 

 described by me in the year 1830, under the name of 

 ^geria Pyri (Plate V. Fig. 5), the pear-tree ^geria ; 

 and my account of it will be found on the second page 

 of the ninth volume of the " New England Farmer." 



Its wings expand rather more than half an inch ; are 

 transparent, but veined, bordered, and fringed with purplish 

 black, and across the tips of the fore wings is a broad dark 

 band glossed with coppery tints ; the prevailing color of the 

 upper side of the body is purple-black ; but most of the 

 under side is golden yellow, as are the edges of the collar, of 

 the shoulder-covers, and of the fan-shaped brush on the tail, 

 and there is a broad yellow band across the middle of the 

 abdomen, preceded by two narrow bands of the same color. 



There are several more insects * belonging to this group 

 in Massachusetts, one of which lives in the stems of the 

 lilac, and another inhabits those .of the wild curi'ant, Jl'ihe^ 

 jioridum. The winged male of the latter species is remarka- 

 ble for the very long, slender, and cylindrical tuft or pencil 

 at the extremity of the body. Of the rest, there is nothing 

 particularly worthy of note. 



* See Sillimaii's Jounml, Vol. XXXVI. pp. 309 to 313. 



